Humboldt County, on August 10, 2010, signed onto the Secure Communities Program [S-Comm] with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], an agency of the Department of Homeland Security.  The public had no say in the decision to adopt the invasive, unjust, and racist program for Humboldt County; the Board of Supervisors has not elicited public opinion about adopting this program, nor has it done anything to inform the public about it.

What is the "Secure Communities" Program?  If you are booked into jail, your fingerprints are taken and forwarded to ICE. The fingerprints are crosschecked with immigration and FBI databases. ICE evaluates each fingerprint scan to see what enforcement action, if any, will be taken against you. Enforcement actions can include arrest by ICE, transfer to ICE custody and/or initiation of removal proceedings (AKA deportation).

Monday, June 14th WHILE a caring community member shared sandwiches with up to 100 hungry people in Redway- on the street- engaging in a responsible and constitutionally protected activity- the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department drove around photographing the people who were eating lunch. This is INTIMIDATION. This is profiling. There is no good reason for it.

People are scared when the Sheriff’s Department behaves this way because the Sheriff targets anyone who lives outside with very few resources. The Sheriff’s Department hunts people down while they are sleeping -out of sight- and Sheriff Deputies attempt to DISAPPEAR people who are, for instance, sitting under a tree for shade.

Recently, some of us witnessed 4 (that's right FOUR) Eureka Police Officers arresting a woman for sitting in a covered bus stop late at night with only a blanket in her hand.  Three vehicles, two of them K-9 units, were there.  The officers were: Adam Laird (Badge #40), Kurt Rulofson (new guy), Ed Wilson (Badge #96), and Mike Guy (Badge #63).
 
The woman asked the officers, "Where do I go?" 
 
She told them "I didn't do anything."  But, you see, if you sit somewhere in public at night, when you have no other place to go, you get arrested.
 
After the woman was HANDCUFFED, male officer Rolofson, in the presence of the other cops and 4 copwatchers, searched her.  That means he put his hands in her ass pockets and felt all over for... something (found nothing).  It happens quite often here in Eureka- male officers searching women.
 

Christopher Arrion Burgess, 16 year-old Native American boy. He was
pepper sprayed by a probation officer who stormed into a house where
Christopher was watching a movie with friends. EPD officer Terry Liles,
who had pulled Christopher out of sleep about 3 years earlier (13 years
old) and beat him until the boy's skull was fractured, chased Christopher
on October 23, 2006, and shot him in the heart. Killed him. And this,
after years of Christopher being systematically criminalized, and still